Memo 07-62

To: Walt Wrede, City Manager

From: Robert L. Painter, Fire Chief

CC:

Date: April 5, 2007

Re: Temperature Probe

After reviewing the information about the temperature probe Jo faxed over I offer the following observations and concerns:

1. This instrument is simply a thermometer with a 60 inch, hand-held wand/probe that you insert into a debris pile to determine the temperature. If we are dealing with camp fires and burn barrels, that’s one thing. But our burn permits are for piles up to 10 feet by 10 feet and sometimes even larger than that. I will not be sending any of my personnel onto a potentially hot bed of coals to take temperatures, nor should we be “loaning” out an instrument for civilians to be doing so. As I have previously mentioned some areas around Homer may have up to 5-8 feet of organic material underneath the burn pile proper. There have been instances where firefighters and others have fallen into hot ash pits several feet down, below what appeared to be a solid surface. Checking only the perimeter of a large burn pile will do little to mitigate what could remain in the center of the pile (which is usually the hottest part of the fire).

2. Checking old burn piles is not something that should be a responsibility of the fire department. Between the City Burn Permits and those issued by the Division of Forestry for those areas outside Homer City limits but within the KESA, I estimate that there are about 500 controlled burns each year. Under State open burning regulations it is the property owners/permit holders responsibility to ensure that their burn is conducted safety and is completely extinguished before leaving it unattended. There could be substantial liability transferred onto the city if a city employee performs an inspection and tells the property owner that there fire is out and will not rekindle (that is why we make every effort to ensure that a structure fire is completely extinguished before we turn the scene back over to the home owner). Perhaps the City Attorney should be asked his opinion on potential liability if this were to happen? Or the potential for an injury claim if we even make this instrument available to the public for use?

3. It was suggested that the probe be loaned out for individual use, or property owners be charged for the fire department to come out and use the probe. There are a couple of things to consider with this option. First, this piece of equipment costs about $300 dollars. Is that something we want to “loan” for use by anyone that comes in to the fire stations asking? Since there is no method to require that a burn pile be inspected by a temperature probe why would anyone pay to use the device? Even if we charge for City Burn Permits (which we don’t want to do) there becomes the expectation that we will send out someone when the fire is “out” to confirm that that ash pit is cold. Again, with about 250 burn permits within City limits each year that is not something that we need to be involved with. There is no mechanism to require or enforce burn permit restrictions outside city limits. State Burn Permits are issued by the Division of Forestry via the internet or through their office during burn season (April 1 through the end of August).

4. Our response area includes Homer, Kachemak City and the entire KESA response area. This large area outside City limits is where most of the problems arise. We do not have the human resources to hunt down every old burn pile in the area each spring to ensure that they are indeed no longer hot and a potential rekindle threat. Sending a paid firefighter/EMT out to the end of the road checking old burn piles is simply not the best use of our limited response resources any time of year.